I am not opposed to buying greeting cards, yet sometimes the creative writers at Hallmark can’t possibly pen the personalized message you’d like to send. Spend 15 minutes of time and use fabric from your stash to create a paper-pieced postcard, then add your heartfelt message—short or long.

If you’ve never tried paper piecing, here’s a very simple project to give you the confidence to sew!

Paper Piecing Tutorial

Cut Fabrics:

For each postcard/block you’ll need scraps from three coordinating fabrics:

Medium/Heart: (1) 1-1/2″ x 2-1/4″, (1) 2-1/4″ x 3-1/4″

Light/background: (3) 1-1/4″ x 1-1/4″, (2) 1-3/4″ x 3″

Dark/Borders: (2) 1-1/4″ x 3-1/2″, (2) 2″ x 5″

Basic paper piecing concepts:

Numbers in the design sections indicate the sequence in which fabric sections are joined.

Place all fabrics on the unprinted side of the paper starting with the center section.

Add fabric sections to the design in numerical sequence, right sides together.

Stitch on the right side of the paper, following the marked lines on the paper.

Position the next pattern piece.

Stitch section in place, sewing from the right side of the paper and following the marked lines. Press fabric to cover seam.

Repeat the positioning, stitching, and pressing until all sections are added.

Paper Piece the Heart Block:

Place fabric section 1 behind the corresponding area on the paper pattern, with wrong side of the fabric meeting unprinted side of the paper. Optional: Pin fabric in place from printed side of the paper.

Meet the edge of fabric section 2 to fabric 1, right sides together.

From the printed side of the paper, stitch along the line (between 1 & 2) joining the two sections, starting and ending a stitch or two beyond the line.

Press fabric to cover seam.

Meet the edge of fabric section 3 to fabric 1, right sides together.

From the printed side of the paper, stitch along the line (between 1 & 3) joining the two sections.

Press fabric to cover the seam. A mini-iron works so well on small projects.

Repeat the process for each of the remaining 11 pieces.

With the printed side of the paper facing up, trim block along outside line.

Cut a piece of cardstock the same size as the heart block. The back side of a repurposed greeting card works great!

In my blog titled, No-Sew Gathers, I asked you to let me know what you would like to gather using Fuse ‘n Gather. I appreciate your response. The random winner of a 6 yard package is Deanna D. Her comment was: I have been putting off making a dust ruffle for a bed. This would be a great problem solver!